>> hello everybody and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm david shuster. holiday ice, battling through a fears winte -- fierce winter st. operation shame, a smear campaign against alleged muslim radicals by tracking their being pornography habits. the health care site will not be ready until next year plus. >> i'm john terrett. this is snoopy and woodstock

behind me. the question is: with all the bad weather will they be able to fly in tomorrow morning's parade? that is still "up in the air." >> at this very hour millions of americans are on the move in one of the busiest travel evenings of the year. in the midst of i.t. all a large -- it all a large winter storm is still hugging a large part of the east coast, but large freeze and big winds have not been as bad as many feared. large airports still remain open but yet there are challenges on the ground and in the air. paul beban, what is the delay for travelers where you are? >> david the good news is that

as you said, millions are americans are on the move tonight. they are not stuck at la guardia or too much on the trains aas well. i'm looking over at security there's no line at all and i mean none. they said a five minute maximum wait, unheard of for the day before thanksgiving. some philadelphia, boston and new york area but overall things just aren't too bad. for some travelers at the country's busiest airports a test of patience. stormy weather spelled hundreds of flight delays and cancellations, especially at major hubs in the northeast like new york's la guardia airport. but on this busiest day of the year, many travelers had been bracing for worse. >> not any problem at all. >> i got a call from my father saying my flight was cancelled, but he was wrong. fortunately my flight's totally

fine. >> planes into philadelphia had the longest delays, up to two hours after the city got up to three inches of rain. that also spelled trouble on the roads with accidents and flooding forcing some closures. michigan, drivers heading home had lake effect snow and poor visibility and slick conditions. southeast, roads were slippery in both north and south carolina and in tennessee a wintery mix of snow and ice kept the deicers busy. people who opted for the train were happy to avoid the health care headache of driving. >> i've heard that the weather is questionable. but i could be on a bus so i'm thinking this is better than ing on a bus. >> some of the delays on the rails this year had as much to could with the thanksgiving crowds as they did with the weather. so david, the good news here tonight is that if people are experiencing these sort of

planes, trains and automobiles experience, it's not because they're camping out in the airport, it's because they are at hole in front of a fire or at their relatives' house watching it on a dvd. >> paul any remnants or ripple effects just because of some of the ripple effects in the travel industry? >> that's correct, the northeast corridor, new york boston, philadelphia, seem to be a little fouled up, but 5,000 delays, that number not as bad as expected, about 250 outright cancellations, again, things looking good for thanksgiving. >> paul beban, at the la la guaa airport, thanks for that report. >> good evening, i'm

meteorologist kevin corriveau, one of the things that didn't happen was the track of the storm. earlier we thought the storm was actually going to track right along the coastline and that would have meant most of the area just to the northwest would have gotten snow. that would have been all the major airport. what happened was the track of the storm went a little bit inland, leaving the rain along the coast. that was not good for virginia as well as the northern part of new york. still seeing rain, places washington into philly, they have gotten better. i will show you those numbers in just a moment. a lot of rain to northeast, there haven't been a lot of delays in boston, that doesn't mean we couldn't we'll see quite a bit of activity there. this is what the numbers like like. around new york, philadelphia has really improved. two hours ago, they went from two-hour delay, now less than 15

minutes. boston still good. it's la quawd yah newark and -- la guardia, newark and jfk. not much of a significant change over the next couple of hours. back to you david. >> all right kevin, thank you. the storm's gusty winds could charge more than the airplanes, the macy's balloons in new york will not be allowed to fly if the wind speed gets high enough. we'll go to the upper west side of new york in just a few minutes. now up to the latest allegation of spying, there's a report out that the nsa has been tracking the pornography of the people nsa calls radicals. according to edward snowden, the nsa is trying to addition credit or diminish their moral

standing, two muslims vulnerable to accusations of online promiscuity. wus discussing specific -- without discussing specific individuals, it's not surprising if the u.s. government uses all of the lawful tools possible, to radicalize others to violence. julian sanchez, research fellow at the time cato institute. are you surprised that the nsa is tracking the porn habits of those it considers subversive? >> there are a couple of items that are rather surprising. the people that are identified as targets, not named in the huffington post story, appear to be people they describe as radicalizers, not terrorists or members of terror groups, the people they describe as actually having pretty minimal contact in at least three of the cases with

any kind of actual violent groups, just people who are preaching radical islamist views, and so on the one hand it's disturbing that this is a tactic that would be used against people engaged in, basically, critical or antiu.s. speech but not active violence or active plotting. there's obviously a slippery slope there. when does criticism of u.s. for policy blend into radicalization? and also, you know, in the context of our history, of notorious fbi program called sex deviate that for many years compiled hundreds of thousands of pages of information about reported homosexuality or unusual sexual proclivities of political officials, it's a concern any time an american intelligence agency veers back into that territory.

it's not that you would think they would never be interested in as part of their intelligence gathering sexual habits or preferences people of intelligent targets but-- . >> related to that if someone is holding themselves out as some kind of moral authority, and perhaps they might be inciting violence, why shouldn't the nsa be holding onto that? >> well, you know, it doesn't seem like the job of the american government to you know expose moral hypocrisy. it's not that you can't imagine a scenario where that information would be appropriate to use in some way. but to say, you know, we're going to decide which people who hold themselves up and moral leaders are going to be exposed, we're going to choose and the people who become too critical of the united states are going to have those private habits

exposed, i think places us in an unsavory position, certainly. >> certainly because then the nsa is determining who is quote unquote a radical, and i suppose the slippery slope is it could fall into the hands of some administration, somebody is an enemy of ours and therefore we're going to put this out there. >> we see this happened again and again, communist infiltrators and then it became people who are opposed to an administration, we'll use that information, and the kind of collection of evidence that nsa has, is so broad, someone who is a radical or an enemy in some way and use information derogatory to that person, but there's so much data piling up in these nsa databases that it would be very easy five or ten years from now to decide that someone who is now a voice you decide is radical or

inconvenient, you want to discredit that person, you go back in time to you know, through records where they weren't necessarily the target at the time and say what websites were they look at five years ago? were they engaged in you know, online sexual promiscuity as one of the documents said, at some point in the past? it creates i think too much power in one institution. >> well, then there's also the question of course as to whether or not the character asass maition would necessarily assassination, look what the ends this person went to. >> that hasn't happened in the past, that's why it's so dangerous, it's not account annal. when the government -- accountable. when the government introduces this evidence in federal court then there are procedural checks. that can ensure the government has conducted itself properly. when the government takes information obtained this way and begins a whisper campaign or

leaks information to friendly journalists, the other political opponents of their target, you have the power that they're acquired through this kind of massive information-gathering apparatus used in a way that isn't even attributable to them. a person's career is destroyed because of revelation of sex scandal is that bad luck or inaction? >> julian, thanks for coming on, we appreciate it. the obama administration's new health insurance law known as the foocialt i affordable cas taking another insurance hit, the online registrations will not be ready as planned. small groups of employees will still be able to sign up for the new exchanges immediately, but through traditional means like insurance agents. much, much -- mike viqueria has the latest.

>> david, it is a log on the fire of the anger and frustration that many people are feeling as a result of even what administration officials have conceded is a disaster and a debacle. a one year delay, if you own a small business david you are no way compelled or required to offer employee-sponsored health insurance. but many small businesses want to do that, and this website was designed to help them do that the many, and there are tax consideration also involved if a small business owner wants to move forward and offer that insurance. and what has happened now? as a result of many of the problems they are so focused david on trying to fix health care.gov for those employees who don't get employee-sponsored health care that they have been able to turn their attention to this other website as a result, it is going to be delayed one year, this is good news, those small businessmen can go directly to insurers or

insurance agents to work through them, david. >> in other words, they can still enroll their employs now but not through online means? is

about. >> mike, thanks as always, happy thanks. thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving to you. >> the dow jones industrial average closed above 16,000 again today. showed a drop of claims for unemployment benefits. the s&p 500 also closed at an all time high. the merger to create the world's largest airlines, american airlines and u.s. airways, the merger is american's way out of bankruptcy and will take effect on december the 9th. the ruling comes just weeks after an antitrust lawsuit

against the merger was settled. the deal forced the companies to give up gates at airports. what will happen to u.s. troops if nobody backs down? also tragedy in brazil. an accident at a construction site, raises more questions about whether that country is ready to host the world cup.

down in denver, colorado. >> in afghanistan today, taliban militants shot and killed six project literacy workers. afghan president hamid karzai is refusing to sign a bilateral security agreement with the americans. if a long term deal is not reached. that move would also cut off long time aid to the region. jennifer glasse joins us. hamid karzai directly to susan rice's face, i'm not going to agree to what the tribal leaders have agreed to. how can he do that?

>> we've seen this kind of brinksmanship before, but everybody is very surprised by it, when they came out on sunday and said please sign it he absolutely ignored them. we have seen a little bit of softening in his stance today. >> how so? >> he gave an interview to radio free europe and said he lessened his demands. he had initially demanded that the united states release taliban prisoners from guantanamo bay, he is saying he still wants help with the peace process but didn't mention those prisoners and he also did not mention the elections which he had said he wanted u.s. guarantees. a little bit of backing down but certainly a very concerning thing. we had a little sense of this earlier in the year. in january when president karzai came to washington his chief of staff said, the united states needs afghanistan more than afghanistan needs the united states. six months ago president karzai

said sort of the same thing to a local television station. you get a sense of what kind of attitude they have. >> is it a sense where somebody is supposed to blink first and he is betting that the united states doesn't really want to pull all of its troops out of afghanistan by 2014? >> i think so. .elders in afghanistan not only of his opponents but his supporters that it's a very, very big gamble. there's a lot at stake, $8 billion of military aid as well as the security of his country. >> we saw that six civilians were killed today in yet another attack. how secure is afghanistan in general and what would happen if the united states would pull out all its troops now? >> aid groups are worried that they will become the targets of the attack. parts of the country side still very, very unstable. the afghan military forces are considered perhaps not quite

ready for prime time. they get a lod lot of support -- a lot of support from u.s. military, military troops, if they were to pull out at 2014, there was a lot of concern that afghan military couldn't hold their own. >> jennifer glasse, thanks for coming in. mark worked in afghanistan with 92nd's international security assistance force. mark is also a fellow graduate of the university of michigan which i've teased him for many years. welcome tom to the program. >> go blue. >> go blue. can you envision a situation where the united states actually doesn't have any troops in afghanistan? >> if you asked me that a year ago, would i say no, a bilateral agreement would be signed by karzai and you would see support begin on january 1st, 2015. but as of today i think the

issue is in doubt and dye is playing a very dangerous -- karzai is playing a very dangerous game trying to add conditions to the potential agreement. >> what you do i think karzai is after in all this? >> there are two allegations that karzai has made. possibly so he can see a transition to the next government, that's one that he would like to see, in other words, he can still have some influence and effect. the second calculation is as jennifer was saying: that the united states believes it needs afghanistan more than afghans believe they need the united states. and this is the mistake. karzai may not be crazy but he's absolutely wrong if he thinks the united states will not pull out the troops with the absence of a bilateral security agreement. >> and if the united states were to pull out the troops does

karzai survive as leader of afghanistan? >> that's just a technical question, karzai is out at the end of the year, so it won'ting him. the afghan national security forces, though much stronger than years ago, aren't quite ready to take this mission on by themselves. i also think the political signal that the failure to sign this agreement sends will reverberate throughout the world and you will see a dropoff on the willingness to support the afghans and the absolutely critical development aid. >> mark we've seen the video of the gathering of the tribal leaders, literally thousands of them. they supported this deal. yet hamid karzai taking a harder stand. what do you think about that? there's the leader of afghanistan taking a harder

stand than these leaders are depending on. >> this reflects karzai's belief that he is not a pawn of the united states. he will do anything and everything he can to make that clear and he constantly overplays his hand and this is why he has to walk back a lot of these statements later on. the problem is, david, that time is shorter now and patience is wearing thing amongst the allied governments, patience is certainly thing amongst the u.s. congress and by playing this game he puts all of that development money, he puts the willingness to send american men and women over to afghanistan in jeopardy. >> all right, mark, good to see you again, thanks for coming on. >> thanks david. >> you're welcome. collapse of a grocery store roof last week, accepts full responsibility for the tragedy, 54 people were killed, another

40 injured. the collapse was the worst disaster since the split from the soviet union. there's a very sad story coming out of brazil today, that suggests that 2014 world cup deadlines may not be met. jessica taff is here. jessica. >> that crane collapse that destroyed part of the stadium in brazil, two workers were killed in the construction accident today, police say parts of the sosasao paulo stadium, raises me questions as to whether the stadium will be ready for world cup competition. meanwhile brewers slugger ryan braun, violating major league

baseball's antidoping rule, spoke publicly force the first time and apologized for the investigation. ruling on his alleged rape case, the state attorney's office needs the next two weeks or longer before died deciding on whether to bring charges against fsu's quarterback. willie meggs says a ruling will not come before the holiday. all but ensures that winston will play on the bowl game on december 7th. i'm jessica taff. >> just ahead, the fates of snoopy and sponge bob are in question. will strong winds put a hold on the most iconic part of macy's thanksgiving day parade? plus. >> that cranberry will have a

bitter taste, not everybody in the business is going to keep their head above water. power power of the people until we restore of the people until we restore our freedoms and rights. our freedoms a

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm david shuster in new york. here are the top stories we're following right now. stormy weather on this the most traveled day of the year. the skies are clearing and things are beginning to ease a bit. snow and rain are still producing some slick conditions on the road. there's some new problems in the rollout of the affordable care act, president obama says small business owners will not be able to where enroll online until later on in the year. the huffington post, says the nsa is conducting versions of muslim radicalizers.

joe biden will travel to china, both countries claim the territory as their own, early this week the u.s. flew two, b-52 bombers like these through an air defense zone that china says it has declared around these islands, the show of force from the united states just came as u.s. ambassador caroline kennedy was starting her tenure in tokyo. craig leeson has the story. >> china's ratcheting up of its territory dominance,. >> unilateral actions like those taken by china with their announcement of an east china sea air defense identification zone undermine security and constitute an attempt to change the status quo in the east china sea. this only serves to increase tensions in the region.

>> there was times for celebrations but the message kennedy brought from the region was serious and served to underscore the actions of the u.s. on tuesday, that's when the u.s. sent two planes through, a part of a long planned exercise but nonetheless the message is clear. japan is a friend and as far as the u.s. is concerned these are international waters. the establishment of the zone on saturday crosses through an air defense zone japan has maintained for decades. it has been viewed as an attempt by china to impose its authority on the region, while the u.s. works on closer ties with its pacific allies. but japan is having none of it. >> the public works wa publicatn

strong, we would like to see this zone retracted as soon as possible as we cannot accept it in any way and i believe the united states is working from the same standpoint. >> china's decision affected airlines, maintain two way radio contact, and identify themselves if they wish to fly through the zone. but then the government issued instructions for them to ignore china. that inflamed relations even further between the two. but then china appeared to try and calm things down. >> translator: i want to stress that china's establishing of the air defense identification zone in the east china sea is the exercise of self defense. it targets no particular country, therefore we hope that relative countries not be harmed panic or take it personally. >> china says the air defense zone is there to stay and if

there's any doubt, the country's first aircraft carrier began naval dpr exercises in another ocean, the south china sea. craig leeson, al jazeera hong kong. sylvio berle scion was banned from parliament, berle scioberleberlusconi intends to . mohamed zariif faced complaints from hard liners in parliament today. the agreement calls for an easing of sanctions in exchange for iran's rolling back certain parts of its nuclear program.

back in washington, d.c, ever since 1863 when president abraham lincoln at the behest of his son tad spared a christmas turkey, this year, president obama added a twist. he pardoned two birds. carcaramel and popcorn. these two birds were part of an online continual test to determine which shouldn't get eaten. the president decided to also pardon caramel, mr. obama spoke about them both. >> generally speaking, thanksgiving is a bad to be a turkey, especially at a house with two dogs. i salute our two guests of honor, care medical and popcorn for their bravery. >> the storm system moving through the east coast could ground some of the stars of new york's macy's thanksgiving parade. high winds could cause those

giant balloons to crash or collapse. in '97 the cat in the hat balloon left one woman in a coma when it crashed into a light pole. tonight hopes are high that things will continue the way they normally do. john terrett is on the upper west side where right now the balloons are being inflated and where do things stand? >> the thing is david that we had some terrible weather go over us earlier on. it was driving rain, the same stomp that pummeled the midwest earlier on. just as the forecasters were forecasting, the storm has passed and it's absolutely freezing cold here. but the mayor and people in charge of the parade are all optimistic that this can go forward in full. the issue by the way just so you understand if the wind is stronger than sustained 23 miles an hour or there are gusts that are stronger than 34 miles an

hour then the law in new york says that the parade can't go ahead. we'll just have to wait and see. macy's will make their distinction early in the morning. but we have a guest to meet, somebody high up in the hiker arcky, john piper, john is the vice president of the macy's parade studio. in other words, you're the man that makes all the balloons and things. >> all of the balloons and floats are designed and produced at the macy's studio, by the great artists and artisans at work with me all year long. >> let's get to the issue we would like to see snoopy and sponge bob and the other 60 huge balloons that you have. what do you think is going to happen? the wind appears to have dropped but if it gusts higher than 34 then you can't fly these things. >> that is our cutoff numbers but my most recent visit to our meteorologist we have on site and we are keeping here not only

all through the day but through the night and the morning, will be monitoring every aspect of the local weather, in touch with the national weather service and all the weather stations that macy's has placed along the parade route where we can monitor in a micro-fashion the winds that are all along the parade route. i just spoke wher a little while -- with her a little while ago and it is looking more optimistic. that said, we don't make any call any determination until we meet with the police tomorrow morning, look at all the data from all the reporting stations, make sure we have the total picture and then the call is made. but: i want to change one thing that you said before. >> uh oh. >> even if we are sustained winds of 24 and gusts to 34, the parade will not be cancelled. we have 12 incredible marching

bands, a thousand clowns and a whole lot more. >> you sir are a very good salesman. the parade will go on but it's whether the balloons will go or not. what do you reckon the turnout here? it is freezing cold and we had driving rain. >> i am truly amazed. i've been doing this for 32 years. we always have amazing crowds to come to see the balloons. but with the forecast of the rain and the exold i thought well we're going to do our job we're going to be ready but i didn't think as many people were going to turn out. and now i just saw our entrance area. they are lined up, up the block, all waiting to still come and see all our gentle giants inflated. >> everybody qulug the mayor is optimistic so fingers crossed. >> if we can fly tomorrow, very much like the president, i'll

pardon all of the meteorologists who forecasted that we wouldn't. >> john piper, the man and his team, who build all this stuff. back to you. >> john terrett, business diplomacy and snoopy better than then. the cost of the side dish is a bargain this year because cranberry farmers harvested a huge crop and prices are down. great for consumers but not for independent growers. allen schoffler reports. >> a sparkling fall day, the berries shaken off of submerged vines and pushed into a loading machine. most will be processed or mixed into just and other products. but in a continuing trend there are too many berries this year and the prices farmers can

command are dropping. >> it costs about 30 cents a pound to grow cranberries. if you have got 10 cents a pound you can hang on for a while, but it depends on how many bills and how long you have been doing it. >> it's a half billion dollar industry across america. those who belong to the cooperative ocean spray should be okay. prices are prearranged and payment is spread over time. smaller independent farmers could take a holiday hit. >> they're struggling, they're trying to find alternatives. you know there's only so many niches out there. >> here is one niche example. bureau unfiltered juice. from washington only commercial organic operation. >> it is pretty. >> this is starvation family farms, three years in the business. >> we are the farmers, produce our juice, sales, distribute

being and marketing. >> part of the family's survival theory is they sell to expanding carefully and trying to stay out of the cranberry mainstream. >> people want local fruit, there are tons here but not a lot that stay here. >> for growers who aren't able to find a new niche or find new buyers overseas, 2013 could be a bitter harvest. >> these small family farmers, five, ten, 20, 30, 40 acres that are sort of the salt of the earth on these rurals communities and there's hundreds of them out there are going to be hurt a lot. >> pat. >> patton says the farmers could

be hard hit. >> let's head to washington, d.c. joie chen tells us what's coming up. >> good evening, david, food for thought on thanksgiving even. we're going to look to those who have something to worry about, food on every day. we'll meet the brian family, family of five, live in baltimore. the brians suffer from food insecurity, many low income families are constantly faced with this ever tough decision. do you feed your children? do you live without other basics? there is a government assistance program called snap. it helps. sometimes it's not enough, and it hits the brians every day. >> i couldn't sit and watch my kids go hungry. i've got to suck up my pride and go and apply for food stamps.

>> our correspondent sheila macvicar will join us, and it is part of our serious, food for thought, highlighting hunger in america. >> all right joie, thank you. former mvp ryan braun, has broken his silence, jessica taff will have more of that. plus, the makers of a spicy sauce have gotten burned in court.

>> for food lovers and trend-watchers the spicy viet anam ease hot sauce is the coppedment of the moment. for people living near the california plant where it is made, say it stinks. ordered to partially shut down the factory and stop any operation that may cause unpleasant odors. residents near the plant say the fumes made their throats burn and their eyes water. thanksgiving is the day for feasting but also a great time to crack open a beer. on tomorrow's story on al jazeera america, the craft beer industry. >> we decided to take a look at this industry, because almost alone during american industries even during the dramatic excess,

has posted gains year to year to year. while in contrast, the beers from mega-brewers have been suffering from years of flat or declining sales. even as the number of adults in the country there, potential customers grew. so i asked greg cook who is the co-founder of stone brewing in san diego whether craft beer, after all an affordable luxury is regarded differently from the mass produced product by beer makers. >> it's a difference between fast food and a fine-dining restaurant and artisan cheese and prewrapped processed cheese slices, we are getting away from the industrialized notion facsimile of beer into actual real beer. and fortunately real beer is worth discussing, worth talking about. >> to give you an idea of how quickly the craft beer industry

has been growing, in 2013, the united states reached again the number of breweries that it had in the 1880s and now the big guys, the buds and the coors and the millers are starting to buy these smaller brewers trying to get a little of their buzz and probably also their recipes. >> ray will have much more on the successes of the american craft industry on inside story. at 5 eastern, 2:00 pacific. >> sad story in brazil today as the country prepares for the world cup, which is a couple of years. >> absolutely. it's going to be world cup coming up. tough one too. the world was already watching and wondering whether brazil was ready to host the world cup. a crane collapsed on top of the

structure and killed two people and injured several others. police say there is significant damage to the sao paulo stadium which is the site for the opening ceremony. fifa's dead line for all 12 venues to be completed. ryan braun breaks bread for the man he knowingly and wrongly accused of mishandling his urine sample. major league suspension for antidoping. braun spoke for the first time, in an effort to make amends, braun and his fiancee had dinner with dean oh delorenzi and his family. >> i can't do that, i can only move on and try to do everything in my power to earn back people's trust and respect and

support. i don't anticipate being able to earn back everybody's support but i certainly intend to do everything in my power to do that and i won't stop trying. >> what do you have to say to the little leaguers who really have worshipped the ground that you have walked on? >> you know i have always been incredibly appreciative of everybody's support. i made a mistake, a huge mistake that has been extremely difficult to deal with and will continue to be difficult to deal with. all i can say in making mistakes as we all stated previously, we all deal with adversity in life, but as an opportunity to grow from to learn from to help others avoid making the same mistake and that's what i hope to do. >> the matchup of the kentucky wildcats was hoping his team could make up some ground too. ed harrison, slamming it down

with authority and watch this. it happened once, why not just try it again. not a replay this time. james young feeding cali stein. as for harrison he was good from long range. harrison with team high 22 points. kentucky rolls over eastern michigan, 81 to 63. now let's say aloha, kevin pangos, his name, kevin putting on a show from downtown. hits the triple there and the guy getting him the ball david stockton. son of hall of famer john stockton. stockton dirk out six assists. zags defeat arkansas 91-81 in the process.

popular draws snowboardings, plenty of high flying acrobatic highlights. of the women, they have the best of the best best on their team. but as ross shimabuku tells us, the road to sochi wasn't a smooth one. >> snowboarding has become one of the most popular around the globe. enhancing the u.s. team's chances of medaling, gretchen blyer, third olympic appearance. >> this will be my fourth olympic qualifying experience and then hopefully my third olympics. i've had the best case scenarios and i've had the worst case scenarios but then i have the younger girls pushing me and hopefully i'm also an example to them. we are all each other's big what if scenarios. i would say there's seven plus girls who should be on that team

and should be representing the u.s. in the olympics. >> in the 2006 winter olympics blyer won the silver medal but in june of 2012 while practicing the double back flip on a trampoline, she overrotated kneeing herself in the face. making her trip back to this place almost impossible. >> i shattered my eye socket and gave myself a pretty incredible concussion. the obstacles and triumphs, it is amazing. you learn a a lot, a lot of life lessons. >> but blyer has persevered. she has a great way of getting back on the bode yum in sochi -- podium in s sochi russia. >> not compare myself to where i was the year before.

because it was kind of a different version of myself and i had to kind of start over again. >> after winning four golds and a as i recall ver medal at the winter x games, she's considered the face of women's snowboarding but she has a different view of the sport. >> there are so many, everyone has their strengths, everyone has sort of brought snowboarding into a different light to the public and to, you know audiences who wouldn't have normally watched the olympics before. so there's so many different characters and i think that's what's appealing about snowboarding. >> ross shimabuku, al jazeera. >> team u.s.a. going in february in s sochi russia. >> to the international face station where thanksgiving dinner is always memorable. another lesson in zero gravity is ahead.

>> and now a techknow minute... >> and now a techknow minute...

>> all over the world, millions of people are traveling to enjoy thanksgiving dinner. one of the most remarkable views of any thanksgiving intreas. raylirch johnson has the story. >> 260 miles above the earth

with plans for thanksgiving dinner. >> if we can't be home with our families, this is the next best place to be. >> celebrating thanksgiving in the unlikeliest of places, the international space station. turkey, conbread dressing and cranberries but unfortunately, no gravy in space. >> it is thanksgiving without gravy. >> it is still thanksgiving, said vicky, a scientist for nasa. >> anything they have to add water to we call it a rehydratable. thermal stabilized, that's like canned. the same process that your canned products in your pantry have gone through. september we do ours in a pouch, instead of a can in order to

safe weight or volume. >> that doesn't sound very good, but the products we eat taste just like grandma used to rehydrate. >> but you are not inspired, who needs a shopping cart when you have a soyeuse spacecraft? >> we might be bringing up food that colleagues won'ting eating for about a years. but whenever we are attach a cargoo vehicle, we are deattaching a lot of food. >> food is a really big deal in space. it is one of your view connections to the earth. >> it's pretty exotic to have thanksgiving dinner in space. >> yes. but it floats. you can say that much in space. >> from the international space station, orbiting 260 miles above earth we wish everyone a

happy thanksgiving. >> raylynn johnson, al jazeera. >> hello again. well over the last couple of hours things have really improved over the eastern seaboard. the area of rain showers have moved quickly up the east, how those rain showers are just in boston. to prove it i want to show you the george washington bridge and show you what it looks like tonight. visibility all the way across, things are getting better. unfortunately, still we'll be dealing with snow in parts of upper new york. temperatures look like this. they are dropping and that's going to continue all the way through tomorrow morning. right now we're looking at about 39°. the snow still an issue towards vermont, new york, pennsylvania, as well as west virginia dealing with that accumulations could be anywhere from six, eight inches of snow there. tomorrow morning it is going to be quite cool.

26 in washington, a little cooler, we think the wind chill is going to feel about 15. so if you're out there on the avenues you want to dress quite warm. it's going to be quite cool. black friday, 36°, beautiful day plenty of sunshine in new york. and as we go to the second busiest travel day on sunday we expect to see a partly cloudy day in new york about 42°. quite beautiful towards the west. we haven't talked much about the west. unfortunately as we go towards the end of the weekend look what happens in seattle, saturday and sunday are going to be very rainy days. travel problems on sunday, 53° for them. very quickly we are going osee clouds coming into the forecast in dallas and highs up to 63° there. there's a look at your national weather, have a great peefng.

evening. >> hello everybody and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm david shuster in new york. here are the top stories. it's been a stressful day for some travelers trying to get home for the thanksgiving holiday. conditions for air travelers are improving. drivers though are still being urged to watch out for slippery conditions and poor visibility. here comes the world's largest airline. a bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for the merger between american airlines and u.s. airways. the merger will take place december 9th. spying controversy. according to the